DALLAS — In the 51st game of the season, there’s no such thing as a “must” win.
But there are such things as an important point … or two.
Trailing 2-0 after two periods at the American Airlines Center on Tuesday night, the Avalanche got third-period goals from Ryan O’Reilly and Tyson Barrie — the latter with the Colorado net empty and only 19.7 seconds remaining in regulation — to get Colorado the guaranteed point and force overtime against the Dallas Stars.
PHOTOS:
After the scoreless five minutes, the Avalanche claimed the 3-2 win in a marathon, 11-round shootout, finally clinching it when Max Talbot beat Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen to give Colorado the 4-3 edge in the penalty shots. Nathan MacKinnon, Daniel Briere and Gabe Landeskog also were successful against Lehtonen, and the latter two were needed to keep the shootout going.
“There’s a reason I was 11th in the shootout,” deadpanned Talbot, who scored on a wrist shot to end it. Then he added, “It’s a great feeling when you score the goal like this and you look at the bench.”
Talbot said he was 1-for-2 in career penalty shots in the NHL.
“It’s an important win for us, especially with the way (Dallas) played in the first two periods,” said Colorado coach Patrick Roy, whose team managed only eight shots on goal before staging the third-period rally. “It’s nice to rally after giving that late goal in the second period. Our guys showed some character.”
Avs Mailbag:
The Avalanche and Stars entered the game tied at 53 points, four out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Colorado rally came after that second Dallas goal loomed as a potential backbreaker. It came on a wince-inducing miscue by defenseman Nate Guenin, leading to a goal by Erik Cole at 19:08 of the second period.
Retreating, Guenin’s attempt to move the puck up ice down the middle to Cody McLeod was stymied by Ales Hemsky, who fed Cole, and Cole’s shot beat Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov — who had every right to be surprised at the sudden twist — as Guenin slid to attempt to block it.
“Bad mistake,” Guenin said. “I’m fortunate that hasn’t happened much before. When that happens, you just want to crawl in a hole on the ice. You feel so bad you let your team down, but you’ve got to bounce back. The guys did a really good job between periods of picking me up. My ‘D’ partner (Barrie) bailed me out with the goal at the end.”
O’Reilly ruined Lehtonen’s shutout at 6:12 of the third with his 10th goal, knocking in a rebound after Lehtonen made the initial save on Brad Stuart’s shot from the blue line. And then Barrie got the tying goal with the Colorado net empty.
“It was a good pass by (Landeskog), and it just opened up,” Barrie said. “I think they were a little tired. They’d been out there for a while. I know I was tired at that point, but I just called for it, and Landy put it right on the platter for me.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or
